Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday expressed his help for resuming peace negotiations with Ukraine, though he expressed his doubts concerning the legitimacy of his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, whose mandate expired on Might 20.
“Peace negotiations should be resumed and never via an ultimatum, however with widespread sense,” Putin mentioned throughout a press convention in Minsk, the Belarusian capital.
Putin referred to as on Ukraine to return to the negotiating desk, though he warned that the ultimate goal of negotiations should be “the signing of legally binding paperwork.”
He recalled that Ukraine already signed such a doc on the finish of March 2022 in Istanbul, however withdrew the signature beneath stress from the West.
“As soon as once more there’s discuss that we should return to negotiations. Allow them to return! However allow them to return not primarily based on what one occasion desires (…), however on the present state of affairs on the bottom. We’re prepared,” he acknowledged. .
Putin requested himself: “Who to barter with? It’s not a trivial query (…) Russia is conscious that the legitimacy of the present head of state (of Ukraine) has expired.”
“I consider that one of many aims of the convention that was introduced in Switzerland is for the Western group, the sponsors of the present Kiev regime, to verify the legitimacy of the present or not present head of state,” he mentioned.
When the time comes, Putin careworn that Moscow should be “fully positive” that it’s speaking to a “professional energy.”
Ukraine doesn’t consider within the provide
For his half, the Overseas Minister of Ukraine, Dmitro Kuleba, attributed this Friday the alleged willingness of the President of Russia to declare a ceasefire with the present demarcation line on the entrance to the worry impressed by the likelihood that the Peace Summit promoted by Kiev that can happen in Switzerland subsequent month.
“Why are Russian sources instantly telling the media that Putin is prepared to cease the battle with the present strains on the battlefield? It is easy. Putin is desperately making an attempt to derail the June 15-16 Peace Summit in Switzerland,” Kuleba wrote on his X social community account.
Kuleba assured that “Putin has no intention at this second to cease the aggression towards Ukraine.” In keeping with the Ukrainian minister, the Russian president fears that the Swiss summit will finish with a message of “unity” from “a worldwide majority” that forces him to “select peace as a substitute of battle.”
“That is what the Peace Summit aspires to realize. And that’s what it fears,” Kuleba careworn.
With the summit in Switzerland, Ukraine seeks to realize the help of as many leaders as attainable world wide for its so-called Peace Components, a ten-point doc that requires, amongst different issues, the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the discharge of all prisoners of battle and the restoration of vitality and meals safety threatened by the Russian invasion.
“Their surroundings sends these false alerts of their supposed readiness for a ceasefire even supposing Russian troops proceed to brutally assault Ukraine whereas their missiles and drones fall on Ukrainian cities and communities,” Kuleba added.
